You have played your first european show on the mainland in Paris yesterday. How did it turn out?

Ben: Amazing. We had no expectations, it was our first time ever in Europe and the show was great, a lot of kids there..

Brianna: People singing along..

Ben: Yeah, a really passionate crowd. They knew the words to the songs. They were very thankful that we were there.

Isn’t that the case in the US? That people sing along.

Ben: It is. We don’t wanna assume that just because you have fans in your own country, that people in other countries know who you are. It was just amazing to see it actually happen.

Did you have some time to see Paris?

Brianna: Yes, we saw the Eiffel Tower which was so cool, I got to eat a crepes under the Eiffel Tower. That was like my dream.

Ben: It was very crowded and very busy, but we had like an hour to walk around. The area where the venue was sort of outside of the city, so there wasn’t much around there, but luckily we got to see the Eiffel Tower.

And what do you expect of the upcoming shows on the mainland? Today is the first show in Germany.

Brianna: Yeah, I mean it’s sold out, which is so awkward.

Ben: It is amazing. It’s a really cool venue, the promoter treated us really nicely and had food and drinks ready for us. The staff here was very nice to us, too.

Brianna: I am just excited to see if it is the same or different, I don’t know..

How big was the venue yesterday?

Ben: About a 150 capacity. It was a small room in the back of a bar.

Brianna: Very hot show. No air conditioning (laughs)..

And then you’ve got some UK shows at the end of the tour as well.

Ben: It starts in the UK and finishes in the UK.

Brianna: This is our third time in the UK, so it was just like dipping our toes in Europe.

Ben: For the travelling as well.

Brianna: Flying in and out of the same airport.

Ben: We rented the backline from London, so it’s kind of a loop and we get back to the UK.

I think it’s funny that you always here about how the accommodation and organization of shows is so much better on the mainland and in Germany than it is especially in the UK or in the US. Ben: Well I would say especially compared to the US. You’ll never know what you gonna get there.

Brianna: And usually you are never provided accommodation because the venue aren’t set up like that.

Ben: There are some amazing venues in the states, that have like a full menu and a kitchen..

Brianna: It’s not like it never happens.

Ben: I think it’s just so much in the culture of music over here. There is like an expectation that they have good catering and a place for the bands to stay and stuff.

Brianna: When we were being told what it would be like over here everyone said “you are going to be taken care of”, which is very cool.

So in the US you have to take care of the sleeping places yourself?

Brianna: We have slept in the van before. But do you know Priceline? It’s like a hotel app. It is really easy to get a hotel room that night for super cheap.

Ben: It is an application that works through hotels that if they have some rooms that they haven’t book ahead of time they are selling them for cheaper. So you can get a pretty cheap room and stay pretty comfortable on the road.

I don’t know if that is common over here.

Ben: I think it’s in the UK, I don’t know if it is common on the mainland.

Brianna: Yeah, I used hotels.com to book most of our stuff over here if accommodation wasn’t provided. That’s mostly what we do. I love doing that, it’s my job.

Why did it take you so long to finally come over here?

Brianna: The first time we were supposed to come over here was right after some of the bandmembers that we had originally weren’t gonna to the band anymore. But we already had the tour booked and at that point we weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do.

Was it last year or before?

Brianna: It was two years ago with The Menzingers. We had been to the UK before and so..

Ben: We had people that could do part of the tour but not the whole tour. So unfortunately we had to cancel the mainland dates.

Brianna: It wasn’t that we didn’t wanna come over here.

Ben: It was heartbreaking, yeah. But this is the first year that we’ve actually toured full time. So before this we all had work and school.. so that was partially why it took us so long to get over here.

Brianna: Yeah, we could only tour like a month in a year.

Ben: Now the band is our job and we do this full time. Which is great.

Do you know any european underground bands that you like (or would like to play with)?

Brianna: I don’t think I’m well versed on that.

Ben: Yeah, I think that’s been one of the worst parts about not touring over here. When we tour in the US or in the UK we get to meet the bands that we play with and tour with and we haven’t done that over here so we didn’t have the opportunity to.

Brianna: Oh, is Milk Teeth from over here?

Ben: From the UK. We know some good friends that play in the UK, but not so much mainland.

Brianna: Do you have any recommendations?

Yeah, there were some US tours where a german band did open up. Pianos Become the Teeth toured with Silver Snakes and New Native from Vienna, Austria. And Client. did some smaller tours with Defeater and Comeback Kid, but they had to change their name to Twin Red recently.

Brianna: We definitely love meeting new people and hearing new bands like that. It’s just hard to find bands unless you tour with them.

You have played in Australia and Brazil this year. How did the shows in these countries and in the UK so far differ from your usual touring routine in the US?

Ben: I would say I was more surprised that they were sort of similar. When there was such a good energy and a good reaction with people singing along and crowdsurfing.

Brianna: It’s just places we’ve never been to. You always hope to get there but I never thought we get to do all the stuff that we’re doing, especially because we were so caught up with school and all the other stuff that we had to do first. So to go Brazil and play a sold out show is crazy.

Was it just one show there?

Brianna: We just played one show in Sao Paolo, but it was 400 people. I can’t imagine that.

Was it your biggest headlining show yet?

Brianna: Over there uhm.. Sydney? I don’t know.

Ben: Yeah, one of the venues was like 350 in Australia and it was sold out.

And in the US?

Ben: Oh, in the US? We’ve done over 1100 people in Philadelphia. We do alright in California as well. On this past tour we did one night in Pomona and one night in Los Angeles which are about 20 miles apart and both shows sold out. It was 1300 people in total. On this UK run we just did a show in London to 550 people, so that was amazing too.

Brianna: It’s just funny to go from playing basements to playing to that many people.

Can you handle that or do you get very nervous?

Brianna: I get nervous before any show, it doesn’t matter how many people are there. Anytime we start playing I kind of like forget about being nervous and I am just having fun. And that’s all I think about.

Ben: It takes a little bit but once you get the adrenaline it makes the nervousness go away.

Three of your bandmembers left last year. What is your line-up right now?

Ben: So right now for this tour, our friend Sam Lister who is from the UK is playing drums. He is just doing this tour. We have a drummer who has been playing with us who also plays in another band, so he was unavailable for this tour.

Which band?

Ben: He plays in Fireworks. And then, our other guitar player’s name is Pat Benson. He played in Polar Bear Club and a hardcore band called Forfeit. And our bass player is Luke Schwartz and he plays in Make do and Mend.

So this is your lineup all the time, it doesn’t change anymore?

Brianna: I think we are finally starting to get a more solid kind of lineup. It is hard when you have people filling in that are also in other bands, because they obviously have their own tours and are doing their own things. I think we finally have a lineup that feels good. We love spending time with Luke, Pat and our Drummer Teddy and obviously we enjoy spending time with Sam who is playing drums for us now. Their schedules are just a little more open so that they can tour with us more.

Are you still studying besides playing in Tigers Jaw?

Brianna: No, at the moment we’ve both finished school, Ben has a masters degree in.. what is it?

Ben: Speech language pathology. (padology??)

Brianna: Yeah, and I have a bachelor in art and photo and I am a certified art teacher for kindergarten to 12th grade. I eventually have to go back to school to get my masters, but I can do that online. For right now, the band is kind of priority. I could always go back to schools.

So you did tour more in 2015 than before?

Brianna: Oh yeah. We have been touring since April.

Ben: It will be like half of the year by the end of the year, which is great.

Brianna: Yeah, between Australia I only had two days home. And then we got right over here.

Do you enjoy that or is it exhausting?

Brianna: I think it is both. I love it, but I also love being home. It is kind of a balance. You have to appreciate the time you are home and appreciate the time that you are gone and getting to see all of this stuff. I can’t complain that I am in Germany, you know?

Ben: It is amazing to be on the road so much. Makes you appreciate home a lot, but is the best thing ever to travel and play music, get to other people and just do what you love to do.

What is your next release going to be and when will it probably come out?

Brianna: We are hoping to write and record maybe after we finish touring this year. We have a couple of months off and we will see what happens. I think we are ready to work on a new record but right now we don’t have finalized.

Ben: Yeah, trying to take it slow. There is no rush. We just released an acoustic record. And there is a split 7 Inch coming out in September with Kevin Devine which is two The Cure covers. It starts streaming today and comes out September 11th. That was a lot of fun to do. As far as more original music goes, we will be writing from now for the rest of the year and record it whenever we feel like we’ve got a good handle on it.

But it will be a full length probably?

Ben: I would think so, yeah.

How do you feel about “Charmer” now that the album is out for over a year?

Brianna: I still like it (laughs). I love playing the songs from it, I am not bored of it.

Ben: Yeah, it’s been really nice getting to play the songs live and see that they get a good reaction. They are a lot of fun to play and it is good to play a mix of old and new songs.

Brianna: It feels good to play new songs too and have people be receptive to it and that they like them. Because sometimes when a band keeps putting out albums the people are like “play the older songs!”, which I can obviously relate to because I love some bands older albums, too. It feels good to know that the newer stuff is still kind of vibing, I don’t know.

Yeah but I think that is because you haven’t moved that much, but not in a bad way. It’s just not that you put out completely different albums like Ceremony, for example. I think that Charmer was recorded a bit more professional than your selftitled album, but the selftitled one is my favorite. I haven’t listened a lot to the second album, I have to confess.

Brianna: That’s kind of the lost album. It wasn’t promoted really. I feel like a lot of people don’t even know about it. I love that record. Our setlist is mostly from selftitled or Charmer, but we definitely have songs we love from Two Worlds. I always forget the record is called Two Worlds, too. But there are songs from that record that we love.

What do you listen to in the van at the moment? Any newer releases?

Ben: The new Bully record.

Brianna: I don’t know if they are a newer band but I feel like I only started hearing about them when they tour with Best Coast in the states. I have also been listening to the new Kacey Mussgreaves album, it is a country record. My parents listened to country growing up, but it was never my thing. I just think her lyrics are really witty and her songwriting is really good. I never thought I would like a record like this as much as I do. It’s not a newer band, but I’ve been listening to Land of Talk – Cloak and Cipher. Have you ever heard of them?

No.

Ben: There is a band from Philly called Hop Along, they have put out an amazing record this year on Saddle Creek Records. It is phenomenal.

What do you think is the best mood to write a song? Most of your songs sound quite sad..

Ben: I have a real tough time writing happy songs. Not that I am not a happy person or that I have a bad life or something like that. I just find it easier to write from that perspective. The music itself is sort of up-beat and sort of catchy, and the lyrical content might be a little more sad or more negative, but I really like that balance or that juxtaposition. I definitely find it easier from the sad or negative emotions.

So usually who writes the songs or is it everyone in the band?

Ben: About half of the songs I’ve written. And then the other half was Adam, who is no longer in the band.

Well, that was my last question. Thank you for the interview! Is there anything else you would like to add?

Ben: We are just really grateful and happy to be here in Germany and to have people interested in our music and talking to us. Thanks a lot!